Do we want a president who is popular in Arab countries?

I've seen this story in a few places:

Barack Obama More Unpopular In Arab Countries Than Bush

Yeah, this isn’t a story you’re likely to see on CBS tonight, so I guess the Conservative blogosphere will have to run with it. A Zogby survey finds that in most Arab countries, Obama and U.S. favorable ratings are lower than they were at the end of the hated Bush Administration.

President Obama became President Obama in large part by playing the anti-President Bush. In part, that meant no more “cowboy diplomacy.” “Smart diplomacy” was the new hotness.

Well. If favorable ratings in overseas polls are our goal, “smart diplomacy” doesn't seem to be working.

But is that our goal? To have foreigners like us? It’s not mine. I want foreign respect. I want Arab and, more importantly, Muslim nations to respect America’s power and influence and determination. Whether they like us or not is irrelevant.

So, too, is whether they say nice things about us, or about our president. It’s like the internet: people will say things to you online they’d never say to your face. Fine, then. Say it from the safety of your own dimly-lit basement littered with empty Mountain Dew cans and Cheeto crumbs.

But, by God, when I show up at your front door, you better pull me out a chair and get me something cold to drink.

That’s what I want.

Of course, that’s not the point of pointing out that story. The point of pointing out that story is: all you people who voted Obama because he wasn’t Bush are rubes. Rubes, plain and simple.

Because you wanted those Arab nations to like us, and to say so. Rubes.

Me, I’d rather they didn’t like our president. So the way I figure, these polls are good news.

Memeorandum.

Proof the world hasn’t gone completely mad:

In the midst of chaos, you can count on Americans to have their priorities on straight. Via Jim Geraghty's Morning Jolt, somebody named Spencer Whelan:



And what might that be, I wonder?



More people googling for news on the NFL labor talks than on the debt ceiling. Because the American people have their priorities straight. Or at least they know the NFL talks are more likely to end with something they’ll appreciate.

Which means maybe I should stop obsessing over Memeorandum all the time.

Wow, these atheists really want Rick Perry elected president.

Headline:

Atheist group sues to block Perry from prayer rally

Can you imagine a better campaign storyline than an atheist group using the courts to block a Christian man – elected or not – from a prayer rally?

Oh, fine, they’re not stopping him from going to the rally. They just want to prevent him from promoting it, and to not have a proclamation about it, and a few other things. No “official” involvement, as if an aura of officialdom doesn’t follow a state governor around wherever he/she goes. It’s a violation of the Establishment Clause, see. Separation of church and state. If Governor Perry is actively involved in this prayer rally, then these atheists might lose faith in their atheism.

Or something. Maybe they'd prefer somebody more...generic?

Hey, Governor Perry! If your Iowa people aren’t working this story until their fingers bleed, you need to call me! Very reasonable rates!

Hat tip Wombat Socho.

Admittere, quod admiratio quis semper TrogloPundit quasi in Latin.

Translation: Commit, and wondered what TrogloPundit is always as it were in Latin.

Alternate title: God I love internet translators.

The story:

Google launches Latin translation tool

Google Translate, a service that can instantly translate entire web pages or chunks of text in to another language, has added Latin to its list.

Google Translate supports more than 50 languages, including minority languages such as Welsh and Haitian Creole, and the addition of Latin is sure to please scholars and traditionalists.

Cool. I love stuff like this. Except, y’know, these internet translators kind of suck. Especially if you want to do more than translate a single word here or there, or maybe a phrase. They really work like crap.

Example One. Example Two.

Example Three: this post's title started out as “Admit it, you have always wondered what The TrogloPundit looked like in Latin.” I ran that through Google's Latin translator, then reversed the translation and got...well, that. It didn’t even translate the word “Latin!”

Yeah, I’m hoping that word has a translation. Maybe it doesn’t. I don’t speak Latin, y’know, so I dunno.

Still. Fun. Wanna see this whole blog translated into internet Latin? Click here!

Say, what language did the Spartans speak? Greek?

Wisconsin, New Jersey understand math.

Some study by the Statistical Research Center at the American Institute of Physics, where they must have had a little spare time between Star Trek marathons:

States with Above Average Science and Math Programs

In all, five states scored well above the national average. In addition to Massachusetts, they were New Hampshire, New York, Wisconsin and New Jersey. Also above average were Maine, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and Indiana.

“Wisconsin obviously has a firm grasp on basic mathematical concepts,” the authors said. "A state doesn’t swing from an uber-liberal government trying to fund massive new entitlement programs with borrowed money to a fiscally sound government actually willing to take on public employee unions unless they understand that one plus one does not equal three.”

Protesters drown out Governor Scott Walker at centennial celebration of the nation's first technical college

The Racine Journal Times:

RACINE - Gov. Scott Walker was barely audible as hundreds countered his speech with shouts of "Shame" during Gateway Technical College's centennial celebration Tuesday.

I’m not exactly an objective observer, but: seems to me the longer protesters insist on disrupting non-political events like this, the more people will tune them out as crackpots, nutjobs, and idiots. So. Good. You keep right on protesting, guys.

At some point you’ve made enough money, or: we’ll have to decide whether we’ll permit you to make any profits or not.

Commentary's John Steele Gordon noticed something interesting - but not surprising - during President Obama’s press conference Monday. He writes:

President Obama’s press conference yesterday—in which he only took questions from left-leaning reporters apparently–contained an amazing statement. It should be noted the first two instances of the first person singular pronoun in the sentence refer to Barack Obama, President of the United States. The second two refer to Barack Obama, taxpaying citizen.

Here’s Obama’s statement:

And I do not want, and I will not accept, a deal in which I am asked to do nothing, in fact, I’m able to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional income that I don’t need, while a parent out there who is struggling to figure out how to send their kid to college suddenly finds that they’ve got a couple thousand dollars less in grants or student loans.

Huh.

Those who had once simpered: “I don’t want to destroy the rich, I only want to seize a little bit of their surplus to help the poor, just a little, they’ll never miss it!” – Then, later, had snapped: “The tycoons can stand being squeezed, they’ve amassed enough to last them for three generations” – then, later, had yelled: “Why should the people suffer while businessmen have reserves to last a year?” – now were screaming: “Why should we starve while some people have reserves to last a week?” What were they counting on?

Ayn Rand – Atlas Shrugged